Sono mono 158

As always, thank you for your comments and feedback. I really appreciate them.

Qualification is over with Lewis Hamilton as the poleman. I’mean, to break thrice the all time lap record AND get the pole, that’s just insane. There were also two crayzy crashes by Räikkönen and Bottas which damaged their gear boxes ant threw them 5 places down de grid. It’s going to be really exciting with Hamilton and Vettel starting in 1st and 2nd place and both Red Bulls right behind. Let’s see how Suzuka unfolds.

Chapter 158 – Is the Dragon King dignity a scrap of paper?

I enter the Audience Hall quietly. Ragnil is stil doing dogeza and hasn’t noticed us but, Meru’s mother Meral, who is laying gracefully in the floor and Meru’s grandmonther Megil who is seated in the throne turn to us. They look at us but say nothing, so taking their silence as a permision for us, Meru flies from my head towards her mother. I follow her with my eyes and slowly come close to Ragnil.

“Yo!”

In response to my light greeting, Ragnil jumps up and carefully looks up.

“… What, is just you… no wait, what are you…?”
“Who gave you permission to raise your head?”

Ragnil shuts his mouth once again with the powerful voice of Megil and starts to pour cold sweat as he lowers his head to the ground. We won’t be able to talk like this and I won’t be able to introduce the girls too so I want to get over this already so I turn to Megil once again and take a breath.

“It has been a while, Wazu.”
“It has, seeing that you are in good healt brings me joy. And… for how long is this going to continue?”
“Until this idiot says ‘I’ll repent so please forgive me already’ and begs for redemption, otherwise I will test how long can he keep that posture until I’m satisfied.”
“Is that so… then we will make our way back lest we disturb you.”

And after I say that, I can see Ragnil’s eyes clouding with tears turning to me. Don’t look at me like that. This is your family’s problem, isn’t it? Or rather, aren’t you the Dragon King? although I can’t feel any majesty from you but, is that okay with you? Aren’t you at the pinnacle of the superior beings that dwell above the clouds of this mountain? Haa…

“… well, actually…”

As I couln’t bear any longer see Ragnil in that situation, I tell them that beyound the Audience Hall door are my wives and a self proclaimed butler, whom I don’t want to recognize.

“Hahaha!! You have seven wives! You’ve done well contrary to your appearance!!”
“Well… one of them is in fact my little sister.”
“Wazu is really popular. Meru can’t keep dilly-dallying any more.”

The mother Meral looks at me and smiles while she pats lovingly her daughter’s head.

“Kyui!! Kyui, kyuii!!”
“Ara! You sleep together every night and more over hugged together?”

Meru-san, let’s stop with that talk.

“Fumu… then shall we have Wazu take responsibility? There’ll be no problem as long as we teach Meru human transformation magic.”

Megil, please you stop as well. Ragnil has been looking at me with killing intempt while shedding tears of blood. Eh? Should we leave him alone? A father’s opinion doesn’t count? He’s clearly against it though…

“We-well, let’s leave that for another occasion and for the time being let’s let the girl in shall we? And about our reason for visiting this time…”

After I show the girls into the Audience Hall, we hear a majestic voice resound from the being sitting in the throne.

“Fumu, Are you the wives of my dear friend Wazu? You have done well coming here.”

That is Ragnil. We got to put on hold the dogeza thing and he got to seat in the throne. Well… his legs were shaking while he approached the throne so there was actually no feelings of solemnity from him. Around him were Megil and Meral embraicing Meru.

“I am the wife Sarona, who wants him to already put his hands on me.”
“I am the wife Tata, who terribly wants to be held.”
“I am the wife Naminissa, who wants to wake up with him every day.”
“I am the wife Narelina, who wants to trains in night matters too.”
“… I am the wife Haosui, who wants to already be sought upon.”
“I am the wife Kagane, who wants to be wreck senseless.”
“I am the wife Maorin, who wants to be held like an animal.”

Eh? Are they indirectly making complaints at me? Or rather, is this a place to be saying that? I kind of feel a feverish sight being cast upon me. Also, when did Kagane and Maorin became my wives? I still haven’t accepted it. Can it be that they are trying to make my surroundings accept them as my wives?

“… Fumu… I am Wazu-sama’s butler and travel companion. My name is Freud.”

Freuuuuuuud!! What’s with you?! Why are you so polite this time?! This is a situation in which you should crack one of your jokes so, why are you introducing yourself so normal?! I mean that’s how it should be but, that’s wrong!! Why are you introducing yourself as my butler without hesitation? Besides what’s with that ‘how’s that!’ face?! I won’t aknowledge you!! I won’t aknowledge you as my butler!!

“Umu, Wazu’s wives and butler, I shall remember your names and faces. Wazu has already tell me so, while you stay here, think of this place as your own house!”

Ragnil says that with the demeanour of a strict Dragon King but from his eyes that are looking at me I can clearly tell that he is thinking ‘You have all this wives but still want my utterly cute Meru as your wife?! You bastard! I’ll see you outside!!'”

“Kyui, kyui, kyui!!”
“Ara ara, Meru is requesting to be accepted as one of Wazu’s wives.”

And after hearing the words of his wife and kid, a face of desperation starts coming out. Your mask, your mask! Your ‘Dragon King’ mask is crumbling!
While I was thinking that, when asked what they thought of Meru’s words, the girls said “Eh? I thought that was the case from the beginning.” What? You already thought that of Meru? Well, that’s okay. At this point of the game I don’t plan on letting go of Meru and if some bastard tries to hurt her, I will turn him into minced meat.

Afterwards we lightly talk about our journey up to here, eat all together and get guided by Meru and Meral to our room to rest.

Although I have the impression that I’ll be having a “physical” conversation with Ragnil later… haa…

The original TL has come back and is catching up “also did 158 already” and put up a pretty big rant on people sniping a series without contacting the original TLs to see if it’s truly abandoned or if they could possibly co-translate with the original TLs instead of just stepping on toes.

That was my rant, not sabishii’s. I gave him a free chapter as show of solidarity and told him to attach that rant.

Please, I dont know if you have good intentions (if you do please start at chapter 1) but if you have then you blew it.

What you’re doing is a textbook example of poaching which more often than not ends with an untranslated project and two quitting translators.

Pity since you have good grammar. (Better than mine to be honest in both JP and EN)

I dont want to doubt you but this IS the internet. People jump into things they find interesting and then bail out when they find out how much work it takes.

I have seen this thing happen so many times over the years that as a fan I am so sick of it happening.

Please if you have good intentions and really want to do this specific project, prove you are here to stay. Start from chapter 1 and prove you can do it.

I know I might get flamed for this but I am voicing this opinion not only as a translator but as a fan myself who has suffered this crap again and again throughout the years that I myself decided to learn japanese.

“I dont know if you have good intentions (if you do please start at chapter 1” As a neutral reader i think begining from the start isn’t a proof of good intentions it will just slow the LN translation.

You (as a translator) think of it as “poaching” but think about readers point of view we see that as “helper” since he spends time to translate this series and give us chapters to read.

About the “Start at chapter 1” i think it would be bad for everyone :

-Sabishii : Won’t have to read 100+ chapter (with add) on their website
-Readers : Have to wait until the translation get to this chapter (158)
-Translator : A lot of work for nothing since we can read all the way since chapter 1 on Sabishii

Why don’t you make a cooperation like :
Sabishii translate all the chapter that end with (0 2 4 6 8) and Orc translate those that end with (1 3 5 7 9) everyone would be happy about it i think 🙂

I hope that random-triggered-translator doesn’t get flamed because he makes extremely good and accurate points. I am just hoping that orcbolg can be an exception and finish sono mono since there’s only 60 chapters left. If he starts over, then it’ll take at least half a year to finish (if he somehow manages to update everyday). By that point, sabishii probably won’t even be done yet and we’ll have a bunch of readers that are waiting for both translators. If it was a much longer novel, then I’d also second the notion to start from the first chapter. I’m only guessing, but I think orcbolg just wants to finish the novel because he wants us to be able to read it and because sabishii’s schedule is kinda…well he doesn’t have one. As we saw previously, sabishii can leave sono mono hanging for nearly a month with no announcement. He can be inactive, then come back when someone else starts translating and say he’s still active.

I do agree that at least for orcbolg’s next translation (if he decides to do another one cause his quality is great), he should with a novel that isn’t being translated yet, take one that definitely has an inactive translator, or competes with an active project by starting from the first chapter.

I really enjoy orcbolg’s translations and finishing the rest of sono mono is a realistic possibility. It’s only a possibility though and I hope he at least let’s us know if he PLANS on finishing. Totally okay if he slows down though cause daily updates are both amazing and crazy. He does let us know when the next update is, which is nice.

Yeah. All of this happened because sabishii had a broken contact form and orcbolg probably got too excited.
And yeah, in a perfect condition, they should do a tag team.
However, sabishii said no, probably because of how poorly this whole thing went.
And my 30 chapter challenge is the only way I can see this end as legitimate competition because most newbies give up by then anyway unless he’s actually serious. In my “honeymoon phase” I was churning out 2-3 chapters a day. Lol. Not practical but doable when you’re excited. And seeing a serious contender should send a real message to sabishii.

Anyway. I’ll stop now. I know I’m overzealous about this. But it has repeatedly happened.
I wish luck to the two translators and hope that at least one of you stays.

Even with another unnamed and random translator helping sabishii, I read his translation and you can utterly feel the laziness in restructuring sentences, or rewording to make ideas flow smoothly and understandable. What I saw was just crappy subpar quality that I couldn’t see any editing effort, despite their ranting and shamr play.

Orcbolg’s translation has majorly different quality you can just feel feom reading. Paragraphs are still clumped up and could use some breaking up per artistic interpretation, but not a major gripe. However, the english is clearly understandable, words and ideas flow normally that just dont scream wtf am I reading.

Overall this site has better translation and more effort can be seen in keeping quality above standard. Also major plus point is none of that Adblock blocker crap, or the tons of annoying flashing ads.

Yes, because it takes time. I did that specific chapter in my spare and in my defense I havent read the series myself. Plus. I do admit that my japanese is not that great. If you can actually notice I actually made a mistake in my translation that when I checked orcbolg did right.

However the point of that post is not to translate the series itself but to show solidarity to sabishii because he has stayed for a year and intends to stay. He will overwrite that chapter in his style eventually.

Orcbolg is in his “honeymoon” phase right now where he is under the influence of translator’s high. I pray he can keep it up but I’d doubt it because reality will come knocking in his door.

I’m sure you are aware that a human can read at 300wpm. He can type at 100wpm. This novel has 2500+- japanese characters which equal 1500+- english words. This means that the fastest a human can go translating is at around 20 min assuming he can translate while only reading this once and typing this once only. Add the other multipliers and you’d get 2-8 hrs per chapter depending on his proficiency and the chapter difficulty.

Can you orcbolg keep doing this for a two months (assuming he wants to complete the series at his current pace) with little to no pay? If so prove it and welcome aboard. I’d be happy to have you. Only those who do it for the fun of it would stay anyway. The money some get from ads and donations are just icing on the top.

Unfortunately, experience had taught me that this is unlikely. So I’m sorry but I have to doubt you for now.
Do note though that I agree that the three month rule is excessive and that no one should hold translations hostage. However, being an active translator does not count as holding it hostage in my opinion.

Hey Random, it’s me Rice Merchant from sabishii’s site that you talked to yesterday. Thanks a lot for at least checking out orcbolg’s page and translations. Even if orcbolg ends up slowing down, I’ll be more than happy enough if he finishes till the end. Translators who can put out updates everyday are absolutely amazing, but we can’t help but worry about their health if they do. I’m both expecting and hoping orcbolg slows down a bit for his own sake of enjoying translating and keeping his health fine.
At this point, I completely agree with at least doubting orcbolg for now. Hopefully he can prove himself by continuing with a decent pace and finishing sono mono. If he ever decides to pick up another novel after this, then hopefully he picks up a new one or contacts the original translator before starting.
Unfortunately, after our conversation yesterday, sabishii deleted my comments, including our conversation. Not really sure why since it ended fine and peacefully. Because of that, I can only see sabishii as a greedy and selfish translator that doesn’t want his readers to know. I posted a follow up comment that was also deleted by him:https://puu.sh/xS5Vf/1ed58d073e.png
There are many types of translators, just like there are many types of readers. There are the types who truly care about the community, like you random-triggered-translator, as I could tell from your comments and our conversation. However, at this point, I can’t believe in sabishii being one of those translators like you.

Long TLDR: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/3eukbh/tl_stellar_transformations_a_case_study_in_the/
Yeah it’s unfortunate he decided to delete our conversation. It was a wonderful and fruitful one after all.
As for the health, yes, exactly that’s the point. Real Life in some kind or form will come knocking in a translator’s door sooner or later. That’s why we follow these unwritten rules that have been developed over the years in the translation community.
However (I know I’m sounding like a broken record here but I’ll say it again anyway) poaching will destroy a translation project.
It is up to these two how to handle this now but if I were orcbald, I’d start over from chapter 1, go for 30 releases (or even just half of that), prove himself constant and capable, and then jump to the latest chapter.
Because let’s be honest, if you’re doing this for the community, you’re not going to force a “constant” translator off a project by jumping the queue. If you refused to do my suggestion then it only shows you’re in it for the attention and not the novel itself. You are showing your hypocrisy by criticizing the previous “active” translator of his faults but not realizing that you too are probably misguided and at fault. I pray that you don’t get poached too. Because trust me, leechers would not care. This has happened AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN.
However, if another translator competes and proves his sincerity and quality (just like through my suggestion), then the previous translator should, in my opinion, give way. WE DON’T HAVE ANY RIGHTS TO THESE NOVELS AFTER ALL. HOWEVER WE RESPECT EACH OTHER AND WE RESPECT THE WORK ABOVE ALL ELSE.
I am not discouraging orcbald from translating. In fact, I’m sure he would be a great one if he chooses to do so. However, I am just so sick of seeing something like this happen again that I just don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t want to see another Mushoku Tensei, Martial World, Stellar Transformations, etc. etc. I AM JUST SO SICK OF THIS THAT I AM SO TRIGGERED.
I know I’m just some random guy in the internet and I know most people will ignore me anyway. But I just want to rant. Just like how normal people want to rant. I’m a fan too. But at least I want to rant logically. And I at least want to reach out to those who can understand these points. Because trust me we understand yours because us true translators are fans ourselves.
To those interested please read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/3eukbh/tl_stellar_transformations_a_case_study_in_the/
Also, I’ll probably stop this anymore. I’m just overreacting. I know. Sabishii also probably just wants to end this too cause trust me he’s probably getting flamed and stressed right now.
And when both of them stops because of this stupid commotion (the other gets discouraged and the other losing his translator’s high), you/us readers lose.
Thank you Rice Merchant. You made good points in our conversation. It’s a shame it’s gone now.
*rant off*

While I don’t have any real stake in this, I should point out that tag team ranting in the comments of your object of hostility doesn’t paint you in a very good light. The only likely outcome is to make the other party embittered and spiteful over the repeated public efforts at shaming.

This is really starting to look like Sabishi is only caring about the lost ad revenue, they are claiming they don’t want help translating but gladly taking chapters from others as long as it can be posted to Sabishi’s site and they are now deleting comments that are even somewhat negative some of which made some decent points about this whole issue.
At this point i’d just say screw it keep doing whatever you want. Sonomono chapters are also a lot smaller than most other light novels I have read so it shouldn’t take a month to translate a single chapter at most a few days to a week depending on how busy you are.

I was one of those people who pointed that out on sabishii’s site and got my comments deleted. At this point, our best course of action as fans and readers is to just support who we want to support and leave it at that. Orcbolg never made a big deal out of this and sabishii is done with his complaining (for now). The only reason why I complained and made a big deal out of it earlier was because sabishii made it seem like a big problem. There’s no point in us making a big deal out of it now though.

I don’t like sabishii anymore, but it’s not like I want him to stop translating. He has his own readers that like reading from him and that’s absolutely fine. I personally will be reading orcbolg’s translations and support him.

Hopefully, if both translators stay out of each others’ way, neither of them will decide to stop translating and the negative results of poaching won’t happen. We readers should do the same and not add flames to a problem that isn’t going on atm. I was at fault too for being pretty aggressive on sabishii’s site with my comments, but I’m done with it now since it’s no longer a big deal. I hope it stays that way.

Talking with random-triggered-translator also helped since I was able to understand a bit more why translators have problems with this. If you have time, please read his comments from this chapter. You may not agree with everything, but his points are accurate and are proven by previous works that ended because of problems with poaching. We had a conversation on sabishii’s site, but sabishii deleted it so rip.

Beard-cutter thanks for the chapter, I am a brazilian reander (and my english is not good) but i read a lot of novels in english, it’s difficult, but when i read your translations i can understand everything, it makes me really happy.
Thanks for the chapter and your hard work.

The original translator is very busy at the moment and freelance translator like rusaku and Random-triggered-translator are “helping” on translating some chapters, this could be fine if they dont translate already scheduled chapters, ex. You already scheduled chapter 159 they could translate 160 but they would go for 159 and your previous published chapter, making unnecessary conflict with that type of meddling

I am glad he still isn’t accepting Kagane as a wife as soon as he does that I’m dropping this novel they are blood related siblings it doesn’t matter she has knowledge of her past life they are still brother and sister.